(10-06-2020, 02:24 PM)JagNGeorgia Wrote:

(10-06-2020, 01:03 PM)homebiscuit Wrote: Raw rookie Burrow is performing pretty well behind, arguably, the worst OL in the league.

And as good as he's been, Minshew's first four games beat Burrow in every single category except yards-per-game. In several categories, Minshew far outperforms Burrow. That's not a direct apples-to-apples comparison, but I think it should put in perspective that Minshew has shown quiet a bit at this point. We keep excusing flaws we see in other teams' rookies, but we have a young QB that's not getting the benefit of the doubt after a couple moments when he's subpar.

As someone who lives in the Cincinnati area and has seen all of Burrow's games so far and 3 of 4 of Minshew's games, (I missed the Tennessee game,) I can tell you that I see a world of difference. In those first three games Cincinnati played, Burrow was under a ton of pressure on nearly every play. I didn't see any panic in him though. He stepped up in the pocket, remained cool and if the pressure got too close, he threw the ball out of bounds and didn't try to force things that weren't there. He has gotten consistently better with each passing week. A.J. Greene was given the franchise tag and that came with a lot of money. Despite this, Greene doesn't look anything close to being the player he once was. He's not getting separation at all. He was supposed to be Burrow's "go-to" receiver, but Burrow is seeing his decline and doesn't feel obligated to force the ball to him. He's utilizing all of his other receivers and going through his progressions quickly and making the right reads. It's been a long time since I've seen a rookie QB look so polished. 

With Minshew, he gets "happy feet" when he feels the pocket collapsing. It's like he goes into panic mode and he either cuts off his reads and starts scrambling until he is sacked or forces ill-advised passes. He tries to make something happen when it isn't there and often times, we are penalized, because he is holding the ball too long or he is dropped for a sack. For some reason, he forgets to chuck it out of bounds to avoid a loss. To be honest, I don't know what the deal is, but the consistency isn't there. He's been regressing, while Burrow has been ascending. If you watch their games throughout the season and take into account the talent level around them, that is apparent. I'd say the Bengals O-Line is vastly worse than ours, despite the outcome of Sunday's game. The receivers are pretty equal and I'd also say Robinson is every bit as good as Mixon at the RB position. That means the talent level of the people around them is almost even. Stats aside, you only need to see that one is getting better as the season goes on, while one is not.

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